 Kristi Eckberg |
Monitor Calibration Kits I'm going to try out WHCC lab and they recommend Eye One Display or Monoco Optix for monitor calibration. Any opions on these? There are so many out there. I I have the Huey right now and having no luck. Any help would be great.
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Jon Canfield |
Hi Kristi - Both the Eye One and Monoco Optix are excellent, cost the same general price, and do about the same job. I personally use the Eye One system for monitor and printer profiling. I think most people find the Monaco software a bit easier to use, but the results will be the same either way. The Huey is a good basic device, and while it's not as accurate as the others you mention, it should be doing a "good enough" job for you. What kind of problems are you having that it's not working for you? When sending images to WHCC, it's going to be important to follow their recommended workflow, particularly the color space your images are using. They prefer that you use sRGB, but will accept anything as long as the profile is embedded with the image - in other words, don't use Save for Web in Photoshop with the default options. Hope this helps!
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Jagadeesh Andrew Owens |
I use WHCC and they're great. They even send you Tootsie Pops with your orders. LOL! (seriously, though, they do...) I calibrate with the Huey after trying it and Spyder2Express. Not truly "pro", but my prints match my monitor EXACTLY!! It also continually adjusts your monitor for changes in ambient room light. I always imbed Adobe 1998 with my photos, and they come back correctly. The staff is also great and available on the phone all the time.
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Kristi Eckberg |
I just don't know when the best time to run the Huey is. Under what lighting conditions?? Lights on, day, night? It does help a little but I still see way to much red. And it doesn't help me with brigtness or contrast levels. When I tried adobe gamma it said to up the contrast to the highest level then adjust the brightness. That was ridiculous. Completly blown out with highlights and looked terrible. I feel like my monitor is all screwed up now and I have a ton of proofs that may need re doing now. I will buy the Monoco b/c a local photographer here did recommend it and hopefully it will get my monitor on. I'm stressing out! Just stinks when you work forever on proofs (still trying to accomplish getting perfect shots right out of camera) you think they look good one day, order test prints and they look way off. I had no idea digital would be this complicated in the early stages.
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Jagadeesh Andrew Owens |
You need to delete Adobe Gamma from your system. Totally. Huey and all other calibrators make it obselete, and the calibration software will tell Photoshop what to use. I calibrate my monitor after it's been on for an hour, and I make sure I have no artificial or natural light falling [i]directly[/i] on the monitor. You shouldn't be doing anything with Adobe Gamma if you're using calibration equipment of any caliber. Reset your factory defaults on the monitor and then calibrate with Huey. As I said, I use it and WHCC and have absolute perfect prints from them.
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Kristi Eckberg |
I may seem clueless here but when you say no artificial light, then what about my ceiling lights in my office? Do I run huey in darkness then? So if I run they huey and I still see to much red can I make minor adjustments through control panel, (display,color settings) or the buttons on my monitor or does that just override the huey? I downloaded WHCC's profile so when I view the proof set up do I view under perceptual, relative colorimetric or absolute?
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Jon Canfield |
It's the direct lighting that is the key here - you don't want a light that is shining right on the monitor and causing glare. If you have Adobe Gamma installed still, it will cancel out the Huey profile. Click on Start > Program Files > Startup, and delete Adobe Gamma from the list of programs, then reboot your computer. As for which lighting to calibrate under, use the lighting you normally work with. The Huey can update at regular intervals and will adjust the brightness to keep it relative to the room light. As for photo printing, you should only use perceptual or relative colorimetric. Absolute and saturation are not designed for photo printing. Jon
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Jagadeesh Andrew Owens |
Jon - thanks for clarifying what I said about Adobe Gamma and glare on the monitor. One more thing to consider - the age and condition of your monitor. If it's old, even a year old, and you've done hours and hours of work on it, it could be dying.
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Kristi Eckberg |
Thanks again. I forgot to ask if I should put in special light bulbs. The regular soft white produce a yellowish tint then they have the reveal lights that produce a more crisp white should I be using those?
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Jagadeesh Andrew Owens |
It doesn't matter...as far as the computer and calibrator go. If it senses too much yellow in your ambient light, it will adjust the screen accordingly. I have an artsy lamp on top of an armoir that has a reddish globe, which of course, makes the light reddish, a floor lamp with regular lights in it, and it just makes no difference!!
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Jim M. White |
Hi Kristi, To sort of second what Jon has said, I too have both systems and for some reason I have settled on the Eye One as well. Both systems give great results if you follow directions.
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Ken Henry |
Ok, There's always bits and pieces about calibration, color profiles etc. First, of all the calibrations to do on your monitors, it is the printer who will decide the color profiles it will use. The following are my and my client opions. Which printer gave me the most accurate color profile? Sorry if I am going to upset you HP and Canon owners. I've had the canon 5000 and i9900. I now use the Epson 1800. It does'nt matter if you use the adobe gamma, the variety of spiders, hueys, etc. You can scramble your own gamma colors and Epson will print it accurately no matter how garish it looks. Epson's imbedded programs are able to pick-up any profile and print it outstandingly accurate. It appears that all the other brands are only interested in selling printers and you figure it out. You are calibrating your monitors accurately yet your printer is not accurately profiling. I use a less than $100 Photocal Spyder. Why must my prints be very color accurate. I work for Architects and Designers. There are more accurate settings to perform so I'll come back with those details. Ken
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Jon Canfield |
Well Ken, this is certainly the most interesting approach and thoughts I've seen on the topic. I'm really looking forward to hearing the rest of your details. If you are getting accurate results with your methods, by all means keep doing what you're doing. To say that Epson can fix any problem and print accurately is a gross misstatement though - and it's nothing against Epson, which I also use. The printer, if you're letting Photoshop handle colors is simply mapping the colors used in your image to ones that match what the printer can reproduce. If you use Printer color management, the printer is selecting the profile based on the paper type and quality setting. Jon
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Ken Henry |
Sorry I didn't get back 'till now and my "gross misstatement" regarding other brand printers. They ALL print perfectly well for exterior and direct flash photos as this is pure 'white' light. 80% of my photos are interior, not controlled studio photgraphy, which means dull flat colors. With Mixed Lighting, that means tungston yellow lights, blue cast from outside, a cloudy day produces a bluer cast, plus flash with color correcting gels(sometimes). This is where accurate photo recording and PRINTING must work together. To me Epson receives the info from photoshop and prints so accurately I do not have to run test prints. It amazes me. It took only a week for me to finally quite printing test prints. And this doesn't include the hundreds of test prints learning how to scan photos. This is another lesson. Well, anyway I do have all the details on as accurate color profiles settings as possible that I use and it's really very simple and a few paragraphs. Unfortunately I like detail. Back with details later, Ken. Colormetric? Where's that? Where do I start clicking to? Here's my street address. Oh, you need to know what City it's in. Oh, and you need directions. Well, you right click here, and you left click there and then we do the.........y. goodnight.
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Ken Henry |
Calibrating the monitor is your monitor only. First you need to set your profiles to your printer, computor, scanner, monitor and what ever else is on your train. Remember these are the settings I use. 1. Reset your monitor. Push the monitor menu button to bring up the Main Menu. Go to Factory Reset using the - or + buttons and push the monitor button to reset. Now go to color settings on the Main Menu and open it. At the Normal Preset there are three color settings for red, green and blue. Write down these settings. Now go to Manual or User Settings and change the color settings to match the Reset Settings. Exit the Main Menu. 2. Change to 32-Bit Color. Right click the Windows Desktop and choose Properties. At the Display Properties dialog box click the Settings Tab. Open the Color Quality drop-down list and choose Highest(32 bit) or your highest color setting available. Click Ok. 3. Photoshop Color Management. In PS go to the Edit Menu, click on Color Settings. I use No Color Management. You can come back and experiment and try Full Color Management. For now use NCM. 4. Even if you have a monitor calibrating device Launch Adobe Gamma, we need to bring everything back to wack. Click the start button, select Control Panel, and double click the Adobe Gammma icon to start the program. 5. Load the Monitor's Profile. I use Adobe RGB(1998) for it's larger color gamut versus sRGB. Click the Load Button, locate the file, and click open. {Open My Computer, Dbl click Local Disk(c), then Windows/system 32/spool/drivers/color}. Find the profile among the list and open. 6. Open Phosphers, I use the Custom setting and click OK. 7. I like my brightness and contrast where it is, so I'll Leave it as is. 8. In The Gamma Pane at Desired: select Windows or Macintosh Default. Gotta go. Will be back for more settings.
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